Toxicity in the Anime Fandom

Fanbases truly are a wonderful thing. They help to make a show bigger and better, and if a majority of them voice their opinions on something they can invoke change in a show, game or other form of entertainment for the better. It’s a great way to also share content that you create out of love for the medium with the rest of the world, like music or fan art for example. Probably one of the biggest and best examples of fanbases working together would be with the creation of conventions, central hubs of entertainment held over the course of a weekend where fans from across the board go to hang out, buy cool stuff and check out panels hosted by voice actors, YouTubers and artists just to name a few.

Specifically looking into the anime fanbases however, it’s not all roses like it might first seem. There tends to be a lot of infighting between specific ‘groups’ in the anime community, and I don’t just mean fighting over whether or not #TeamChitoge or #TeamOnodera is best girl from Nisekoi either. Its Chitoge by the way, but that’s beside the point.

Come at me Onodera fanboys.

I’m talking more about the fights between ‘anime elitists’ and ‘casual anime :insertinsultingderogatorytermhere:’, the fights between whether or not SAO is a bad anime or not, deciding that all Shōnen are worthless and crap because “they have too many episodes” and so on and so forth. Most of the time when I either watch or read about this stuff I:
1. Normally laugh my butt off at how ridiculous this all is.
2. Sit there in confusion as to why people start defending these things like they’re their children and/or have to resort to insults.

I totally get if people have differing opinions on certain things, I even don’t personally like SAO either. I think it had a strong start, but by about halfway through, possibly even just before then, season one it just started rushing through the story waaaaaay too much and I honestly got sick and tired of the show. However, I won’t start calling someone a :blankidyblankblank: just because they think it’s the best anime ever made.
If it’s a friend of mine I might jokingly say that, but we all know that we’re just mucking about. I wouldn’t go out of my way to start sending death threats to a random person because of it.

Choosing what is better between dub or sub is another major problem that our community has. One side saying that we should just stick with dubs because it’s our own native language, this is taking into account that Japanese isn’t your first language of course, and that they can still listen to the show if they’re doing other things while watching the show. Subs on the other hand are true, to a point, to the original and that dub actors can’t match a particular tone of a character so it ruins them. I won’t dig deep into this, it’s a whole other can of worms that I’d rather not open too much, but I can see both viewpoints. Again though, there is still no reason at all to insult someone over…what audio choice they use to watch a show, movie or program?
In all honesty, it sounds stupid even having to say that. People can get angry over the weirdest things sometimes.

Finally onto Shōnen anime, and we can throw the manga in there as well. I can understand why people might dislike them for their length, quite a few of them have overly long filler episodes and/or arcs that really aren’t needed.
Cough, cough Naruto Shippuden, cough, cough.

I’m sorry bud, but its true.

But the people who complain about, not dislike, the stories really confuse me. Shōnen are meant to just be fun, over the top shows and the action is an added bonus to that. They’re not meant to have deep dramatic stories that question your existence or turn your brain into scrambled eggs why you try and figure out what you just experienced. They’re forms of entertainment made for Japanese children and teenagers, boys to be exact and give them basic role models to look up to. Once again, I’m not fussed if you like it personally or not but there is no need to insult people over their like or love of Shōnen anime and/or manga.

Of course in the end, all of this can be mirrored and said about people who like SAO or Shōnen or both. Don’t go stuffing these shows, or manga, or light novels, or games or whatever down people’s throats 24/7, especially if they dislike it. Its clearly quite obvious why people who don’t normally act like that start raging at you for doing this. You were straight up asking for trouble, plain and simple. Instead, understand where the other person’s viewand/orstandpoint to what you like is and respect it.

In the end, people just need to seriously chill out over certain things. Just take a break, grab yourself a cool drink or some awesome food and do something that YOU personally enjoy doing. Don’t have a go at others over what they like or dislike, don’t stuff what you like down other’s throats and most importantly; just have fun. We’re all in this community because we either like or love this form of entertainment, so let’s start showing that instead of infighting over the smallest trivial things all the time.

Of course however, there is nothing wrong with a bit of friendly banter here and there i.e. your waifu is trash.

What do you guys think about all of this? Do you agree or disagree with my viewpoints? I’d love to hear what you all think about this in the comments below.

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10 comments on “Toxicity in the Anime Fandom”

Personally, I don’t watch much Shonen because I prefer self-contained story lines. I’d never ridicule people for watching them though, even if it is the only type of anime they exclusively watch. Anime is escapism, and although I love them, there’s a time and a place for heavier Seinens like Mardock Scramble or Subete ga F ni Naru (which you can’t really switch off too).

I watch subs, but couldn’t give a toss if people only watch dubs. Some anime actually work better dubbed (Baccano), and it’s a silly thing to get riled about in the first place. I’m just glad people are watching anime. :)

I do have a propensity to moan about depictions of female characters in anime. This is the only issue that could throw me into an internet flame war. Experience however has taught me which animes to avoid if I don’t want to get a bit ‘hot under the collar’ (essentially anything remotely harem).

I understand completely where you’re coming from with how female characters in anime are depicted poorly. Personally, I’m a big fan of harem anime, I think they can be a great laugh and sometimes I can really enjoy the story as well and get involved with the characters.
Guess I’m a simple man with simple tastes.
However, they can be treated really poorly in a lot of shows and that tends to annoy me a lot also (see: School Days). How one minute they can be smart about a situation and the next they apparently lose all brain function and can’t act or move by themselves (see again: School Days).

I watch both sub and dub and tend to go for whatever one sounds the best for the characters themselves. Baccano is a great example, but my go to choice for best dub performances would probably be Black Lagoon. Everything just FEELS right to me about it being dubbed over subbed. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions though of course, but that’s what I personally think.

And with Shonen, I love it, even as a kid. I’ve already explained my reasoning as to why in the article, but I can see how people wouldn’t like it with stories flying around here, there and everywhere.

Sub vs. dub, anime vs. manga, shipping wars… I almost don’t know what I would do if there *wasn’t* some level of toxicity in fandom. :D (This reminds me of a meme I saw on FB where people were rioting in one image and the caption was “Discussing Anime” and there was this United Nations-like roundtable discussion in the other with the caption “Discussing Hentai” lol.) Then there’s my beloved Fullmetal Alchemist fandom, which became a hotbed of infighting when Brotherhood came along because now we have the Original Anime vs. Brotherhood debate, which has gotten downright nasty at times. Seems like there will always be something for some fans to argue about.

Like I said, nothing wrong with a bit of friendly banter and/or debate about topics. Its just when things get out of hand, e.g. death threats and the such, where people just need to step back quite a bit and just chill out haha.

Yeah, I’ve heard about the ‘FMA Wars’ thanks to Tristan’s reviews of the two shows over at Glass Reflection. I honestly have never seen the show, but when I do get around to it I’ll watch it from FMA and go to Brotherhood afterwards. I like to start my shows from the very start, like with Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate, and I’m honestly surprised that major fans of FMA/Brotherhood would try to cancel out one show over another. Isn’t it great to have more content from your favourite show, rather than less?

I also remember seeing that ani(meme) a little while back. Thought it was pretty funny, and sadly(?) quite true.

Anyway, cheers for reading the article and I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it!

I’ll never understand how you or anyone else can actually like an infuriating character like Chitoge, there’s nothing likable about her all. I wish Raku would just strangle her with that ridiculous ribbon he’s always wearing as payback for all of her unjustified abuse towards him.

Yes, I’m all for Onodera; a girl isn’t a psycho and constantly beats up her “love interest”. I wish this series would end already or the author get into a horrible accident to stop this trash fro being made.

Some community got headache from waifu war but it will never happen forever so please don’t mind this moment. Right now it’s the Nisekoi trend so it’s time for Nisekoi fans will show their opinions. Since the climax of Nisekoi will come soon, we will see this trend will rise and the fight will go on until the ending will come , I think.

So while waiting for that ending, there is Nisekoi analysis that collected many clues spread in many chapters until ch 221 in Niseikoi manga, we found the most possible answer and her name is…